USA Today

Shortly after she was sworn in, I invited Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to my office. I looked her dead in the eye and asked, “Now, I just want to be clear, do you think you can shut down the Department of Education?” She looked straight back at me and said, “No, I don’t have the legal authority to do that.” But here we are. It’s official: Donald Trump and Secretary McMahon are dismantling the Department of Education one piece at a time. This is, in Secretary McMahon’s words, the department’s “final mission.” The assault on the department has come in several directions. On Nov. 18, Secretary McMahon announced that she was transferring major functions of the department to four other federal agencies. This means that programs are being moved into other agencies that have no relevant expertise to be managed by people who know nothing about the issues.